It's the same on classic Windows (pre-Windows 95) memory allocation. GlobalAlloc with GMEM_MOVEABLE or LocalAlloc with LMEM_MOVEABLE returned a handle, which you called GlobalLock or LocalLock on to get a real pointer. After accessing the memory, you called GlobalUnlock or LocalUnlock to release it. Of course, this being Microsoft, you can still call these functions inherited from 16-bit Windows even on today's 64-bit Windows. (See Raymond Chen's "A history of GlobalLock" at https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20041104-00/?p=37...).